Saturday, March 31, 2007

Wall-e


Look at this cute little guy. This is me last night when I was told there was no more dinner left.. Nah! Just kidding. Though I know it fooled some of you; the same eyes and cute expression. This is actually Wall-e, the lead character in Pixar Animation's film after next, due summer 2008.

Though I know very little about the guy, I know that we are kindred spirits with the same characteristics.

this photo is copyright of Pixar and Disney; thanks also to wikipedia.org

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Lazy day off.

I had planned to go to the gym today as has become my routine but I woke up with no energy what so ever, so it became a laundry and rest day.

Yesterday I got my new phone as a free upgrade; an LG Shine. As an O2 Select customer I'm entitled to my upgrades every 9 months. My last 4 phones have all been Sony Erissons so it feels more than a little alien to use a different phone, but I've had a chance today to play around an get use to it.

I often get accused of not having enough national pride whenever England play football, well as I don't like the game anyway watching 90 minutes of it, England or not, seems dull. However my chest did swell on Sunday when England won its first A1 grand prix race. Oliver Jarvis in only his second appearance for the team came 2nd in the first race of the day, then went one better and won the 2nd. Almost two years in the making but worth the wait. Top marks also to Brit Dan Wheldon, who won the IRL season opener for the third year in a row. Sweet!

And finally, all I know is that Akon better take his hands off of Jojo otherwise he will be the one getting 'smacked across the floor'!
(just kidding Akon)


thanks to jojo-online.net and a1gp.com

The gorgeous Christina Aguilera




Here is a few pics of Christina taken on March 23. I would drink her bath water!

thanks to phun.org

Monday, March 26, 2007

TV manic!

I was a big time TV fiend on Sunday having to watch about 7 hours of shows saved on my Sky+. Had to clear some space. My favorite shows are; Ugly Betty, The West Wing, ER, Blade: The Series, Heroes, 24, Futurama, Grand Designs, Prison Break, Daybreak and Father Ted, with House MD joining the pack on it's 3rd season debut last Thursday.

The reason for such a feast? - My love of motor racing!

Formula One is not the only motor sport I follow. Oh no. The Indy Racing League (IRL) started its year Saturday and the Australian V8s 2nd round took place too, AND A1 Grand Prix had it's 9th round; meaning I needed lots of space on me Sky+ hard drive. Bad news is I also watch British Touring Cars (BTCC), World Touring Cars (WTCC), German Touring Cars (DTM), World Rally Cars (WRC) and Champ Car World Series!! Phew!

Football sucks! Motorsport rules!

La la la!


I got to flex me singing voice once again on Saturday as I was once again thrown an invite to join the Redbridge Music School choir, by my old High School music teacher, Mr Garner. I was only told about the concert 2 weeks ago and only had just 2 opportunities to practice before the big day. I spent most of the time sight reading. It didn't help that some of the basses were sitting behind me (I sing tenor) doing their best to put me off.

The concert was attended by loads of old biddies and moms and dads and was a charity concert for Macmillan Cancer Support. The evening went well. Also I saw again a young lady called Sarah-Jane who I met a few years back when I spent a year as one of the RMS choir singers, she is without doubt the best singer I've ever heard. Her voice is unbelievable and she will be famous one day!

Sunday, March 25, 2007

'All hail the poker King'



Friday evening was the second poker night attended by myself, Chris, Jason and David. The format was the same as before; a £5 buy-in with a winner-takes-all after a set period. Jason had to but himself back in after losing all of his chips about halfway through, raising the winnings to £22. When the flag dropped the general consensus was that Chris had won the evening, but a count up of the chips revealed that I won by 7 chips! Woo-hahahaha!



Friday was also the Playstation 3 launch day here in the UK and across Europe, and it was the first Playstation console that I have not bought on launch day. And I certainly do feel hollow for it. There were many moments of weakness during March when I wanted to run into the shops with my credit card in hand, but I stayed my hand. Ain't I a good boy. 'You will be mine soon PS3!'

The end of an era


On Wednesday I had to retire my bluetooth mouse. The keyboard was changed earlier after half the letters on it failed rendering it utterly useless. The mouse similarly gave up the ghost cutting out every 10 seconds or so. Pah!

So a step back in technology, with wires everywhere, but an improvement in reliability. Saves me a packet on batteries too! Yay!

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

A lil bit of this, a lil bit of that..

What a weekend it could of been. What with Red Nose day on Friday; St Patrick's Day on Saturday and Mother's Day on Sunday - If you mom was a fund raising Irish comedian she would of been on a 3 day bender!

Sunday was the 1st F1 Grand Prix of the year, and I woke up at 2am Saturday night to watch it. Thankfully it was a good race, the Ferrari won and Alonso got beat. Hopefully those two events will happen every race weekend, and that will make me a very happy bunny! If you've had an eye on the British press of media only one thing happened race weekend; Lewis Hamilton came 3rd. You'd have to look, real hard, to read anywhere that Kimi Raikkonen won, for the first time in over a year, and on his debut in a new car for a new team!

Last night I stayed back late at work to type up and print out my sledgehammer of a letter to Sky. I sent one letter to the complaints department and another to the Managing Director. The little people have no power.

Today, my day off, I visited the gym again. I'm back in the swing and the crowds have dwindled from the New Year fitness fads. Feels good to be back. I also had a lovely sauna a steam, and guess what was in the changing rooms....

sweaty pants!

Sunday, March 18, 2007

'We are the champions' (almost)


On Thursday evening everyone from my office attended a work function; The 2006 Winners Dinner. Every year awards are given out to the best performing offices in our subsidiary. Its all very blah, blah, blah, like any award evening, but attendance is compulsory for all winning offices.

It turned out to be a winners buffet, in a very nice function hall, last year we got dinner but the venue was working man's club hall. Suppose you can have everything.

Bottom line, we (our office) came second in the category, losing our lead in the last month of the year. Our office has won the previous 4 years, so getting it back is priority no.1

Friday, March 16, 2007

Let the race begin


It is with great excitement that this weekend I welcome back my most favourite of motor sport disciplines; the pinnacle, Formula 1.
It has been a long off season as always but then with the new year comes the new car launches, then the pre season testing which drip feeds you back into the full racing season.

Sadly my most favourite driver, Micheal Schumacher retired from the sport last year so I don't really have anyone to cheer on this year. I will still, however, cheer on the scarlet Ferraris, as my favourite team. Also any driver that stuffs it to current World Champion, Fernando Alonso, gets my vote! (I can't stand him. Grr!)

I wish good things on my fellow Brits; Jenson Button, David Coulthard, Anthony Davidson and Lewis Hamilton, but will definitely miss dancing around my room and 'whooping' like a looney every time Schumacher won! 14 years of dancing!

The first Grand Prix of the year starts in Australia and I will be getting up at 2.30 am to watch the qualifying then again the next night, to watch the race! Happy days!




Can't actually remember where I got the photo. Think it was from the Honda racing site, but thanks to the original poster.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Pants for nothin

Yesterday was my day off and I rushed to the gym, slightly concerned by my emerging spare tyre. Thought I'd go for a calorie burning routine and finish off with a nice little sauna.

All went well; I threw in a bit of weight training too, like a wee cherry on top! Went back to the dressing rooms to change into my trunks for the sauna and there next to my bag, hanging on a peg, was someones clothes - with their underpants topmost!



Its not the 1st time I've seen such a sight there; last summer there was a pair hanging in the same manner but they were decorated with a dirty great skid mark, as long as the M4!

Now this 'pants on display' has to be either the work of genius or of a gibbering idiot:-
Genius; There has been pickpockets in the dressing rooms in the past and leaving ones dirty, sweaty pants on display would stop anyone coming near your stuff. Just like garlic wards off the evil spirits.
Idiot; Its just plain dumb to leave your soiled under-garments in plain sight of everyone!!

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

A few of my favourite things

Thought I'd share some of my favourite sites, and the links and get into this whole networking thing.

First up is apple trailers. Being a bit of a movie buff I like to keep an eye on new and upcoming films and get quite ticked off when one makes it to theaters without me knowing about it months in advance. This site has trailers to a lot of current and upcoming movies.

Next, I really like the celebrity photos and 'red carpet' photos, for those I visit a number of sites my favourites being usemycomputer.com, and the forum at superiorpics.com. They both have tons and tons of HQ photos going back years!

For general information I use wikipedia.org. An online, constantly updated and amended encyclopedia. There's nothing it don't know, and if there is then it can be user updated, subject to verification. Neat!

Finally for games and some cartoons miniclip.com is my destination. There's always fun little games to play and new ones appear all the time. Plus there's some cartoon shorts which are entertaining.

Welcome to a slice of my world.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Jason's new ipod

Jason I remember you saying that you have bought yourself a new ipod video since your nano got stolen. Does your new one look like this;



(And 'no' ladies, this is not a crass attempt and clumsy excuse just to have a naked girl on my blog)

thanks superiorpics.com

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Happy Birthday Chris

Chris (library photo)

I got told off for not checking my emails by Luan. I had missed the birthday invite out for Chris's birthday; dinner in one of Bluewater's restaurants. The meeting time was 8pm. From a standing start I had an hour to get there. I arrived at 8.15 and the guys had selected 'Tootsies' as the choice. I had never been to Bluewater that late and was more than a little surprised to see the shops still open and the mall bustling with people.

Birthday boy Chris, wife Anna, Dave, wife Luan and daughter Lucy, and Jason were already into their starters. I was able to order my main meal with them: ribs. I loves the ribs, and these were the best ribs I've ever had!

One of the topics of conversation was, 'if you had a free pass to sleep with any celeb/sports personality, who would it be?.
I picked Christina Aguilera.

I'll say this before Jason does on his blog, but I also said that George Clooney could turn me gay. But I'm not for turning! The ladies are far too beautiful.

Happy birthday Chris and God bless Christina.

Christina on Leno

For Jason..

Well... not so much for Jason as for me.
For the attention of Jason
Hayden Panettiere; the cheerleader from 'Heros'







thanks superiorpics.com

Daylight thievery

So there I was £90 odd in credit to Sky TV with another £67 due back to me now my (Sky) equipment was in working order, I assumed that it would be a good 3 months before Sky would come a-knocking on my door for another month's payment. I mean, I clearly had enough with them already to cover this month's bill of £53.

Imagine my surprise then when Sky cleaned £186! out of my account this month leaving me with £8 till April.

I called them up and asked 'What the hell is going on?' Apparently the money was taken in error (really? You don't say!) and would be returned to me..... in two weeks time! So now I have to get through the next 2 weeks on £8.

Thanks Sky, for f**king up once more. You're getting good at it!

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Beautiful Liar

Holy! Just stumbled across Beyonce's new video featuring Shakira. Holy mother of all things good and pure! The tune is quite good, but the sight of Beyonce and Shakira in the same shot shaking their tail feathers is the work of genius and quite possibly an image that will stay with me now till old age!

See for yourself:



thanks youtube.com

A mini holiday


I've been feeling a bit pooped lately, with little more time than to have dinner before I'm ready for bed (though I still don't go to sleep before midnight). So I've fashioned myself a lil break from work with a 3 day weekend this weekend. '100 milligrams of r & r. Stat!' I can do a lil laundry, a lil TV watching and a lot of chillin'.

Friday, March 09, 2007

Last (!?) Saturday

I can finally tell you about the exploits of last Saturday. I couldn't find the cable to connect my phone to computer, then (d'oh!) i realised I'd sold it on when I'd bought my silver phone and had yet to break out the new one! Oops!

Now where was I..... oh yes, 3 birthdays, 1 night..

With only 3 hours kip and a skin full of whiskey, I went to work last Saturday. I felt a little rough first thing but as the day wore on I felt a lot more perky. I guess knowing that I had a big night on stopped my from flaking out early.

Mike's Birthday

(library photo)

I had not seen Mike for about a 1 1/2 years, not since our Paris trip, so when I got his birthday invite I didn't want to say 'no'. I didn't say 'yes' either; I wanted to surprise him. Luckily Mike was having a simple birthday bash; all day down his favourite local pub in Chadwell Heath. So straight from work at 5 I headed there. He was surprised, and it was good to see him and all of his mates again. Sadly and hour was all I could spare him as I needed to be in Marble Arch for 8pm....

Dave's Birthday

(library photo)

I quickly headed home, had a quick shower, got changed and jumped on the tube for the West End. David was having a meal for his birthday in a sausage restaurant called 'Bang'. I had been there once before last year. Everyone else was meeting at 7.45 outside the station: I arrived at 8.15 and almost dashed passed the guys as they were still outside the station waiting on Chris! The restaurant was just a short walk away and with a sizable group we spread ourselves across 2 tables. Again there was some folks there that I hadn't seen for a while, and it was nice to do a lil catching up. Again with 1 eye on the clock took my leave as soon as I had swallowed my last mouthful. I had to get back to Essex and Barkingside...

Charlene's 21st



I picked up my car from Gants Hill and drove to Charlene's party. She had hired a hall till midnight so had nicely settled into my final destination. I think I only had an hour and a half there again, but the whole gang was there and it was a great way to end the evening. Disco, bar, cameras! I think everyone must have been tired that night because Me, Sarah and Dom left at midnight, but everyone else had already gone apart from Kara and Chris!







Needless to say I slept like a baby when I got home, and in fact my Sunday didn't start till 4.30pm!

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

More more blogarrhoea

Friday

Friday night I went to On Anon with co-workers Suni and Abdul. It was a long planned 'lads nite' however Melissa initially got upset that she was not invited and called us all selfish. I guess the term 'lads nite' confused her. Anyway, Suni (it used to be spelt 'Sunny' but he decided to change it at Christmas!?) drove as he detests public transport plus doesn't drink. Abdul and I shared a bottle of whisky on the drive down; I drank mine share neat from the bottle whilst Abdul had his with coke.

It was a good but long night. I didn't get home till 4:15 am. I was well drunk, plus had to be at work for 9am later that day. The real kicker though was that Saturday night I had THREE birthday's to go to:- Mike's, Dave's and Charlene's. Everyone at work thought I was crazy, but I had no desire to blow anyone out on their birthday...

Sunday, March 04, 2007

The duties of uncle

When I had learnt of the arrival of my new car in January I had taken my nephew Logan down to the Vauxhall showroom and we hadsat in a Corsa to try it out. I thought I would be a nice treat to give him a drive in the car on the first day I got it. So I took him and my niece Stephanie out for dinner Thursday evening.

We went to Frankie and Benny's (I think that's the spelling) in Romford. Logan (9) had been before but for Steph (7) it was her first visit. All 3 of us ordered rack of ribs with chips. Steph suggested getting some chicken wings as well, just to mix up the flavours but didn't eat any of them any way. I lost a £1 bet with Logan too, who correctly wagered that he could eat all his food.

I got them back home for 9pm by which time Steph was tired, but we had had a good evening and the kids had seen, and had a chat with 2 of their dad's co-workers who were in the restaurant too. Two pretty young lady's, maybe something for uncle..!

...and hello new friend


My brand new 07 plate car arrived on Thursday with only 74 miles on the clock. Only 1.2 litres but it should prove cheaper on petrol and tax. C'mon!

Out with the old - in with the new

{some of you may have noticed some may have not, when talking bout my new car I always say 'C'mon'. This is because the Corsa is currently being advertised featuring the C'mons. They are a real band and their lyrics only feauture the word 'c'mon Check out their website and click on 'band' to hear some of their music The CMONS}

CherrMoo
RedWhite
Blue

Goodbye old friend...


March 1st 2007, I had to say goodbye to my company car. He was a leased car which means that once he reached the age of 3 he had to go back. He will now see out his life in private hand now that his working life is over. We spend that last 1 1/2 together clocking up on average 1000 miles a month!

On my day off this week I had to have him washed and cleaned inside and out ready for civilian life, and on his last day I had to watch as some stranger drove him off into the afternoon traffic. Ta ta friend..

2 for 2!

2007 at work is still going well (second month all 3 targets hit), and the month of February gave me another home run; 7 sales, 3 solicitor sign ups and 11 mortgage appointments (I was gifted 2, but, had 4 not counted for the month). The upside was a healthier pay packet this month, the downside, the taxman took a big bite out of it. Damn!

All my debts are now one, and with all the old ones paid off it should cut down on the bounced direct debits all which should help shore up my credit scoring.

Take note people, 'Don't get a credit card. If you can't afford it, don't buy it!'. Scratch that, because you can't have a credit score without a credit card. 'Get one, then cut it up!'.